I left Google a month back (and have been doing a little hacking since). I’m told posting your farewell email is all the rage, so here goes:
From: Brian Kennish <bkennish@google.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Subject: My 2,686th, and Last, Day at Google
(Some of those were Saturdays, Sundays, and days I was pretending to be sick.)
Seven years, six jobs, four teams, three offices, and two coasts later, I’m turning in my Google badge. I’ve been getting asked for three-and-a-half years, “Why are you still here?” The answer was simple: devrel.
I’m certain the developer-relations job and team are the best things about Google. I can finally admit: I can’t believe you can get paid to help startups and independent developers build cool stuff — I’d do so for free. The people on this team and those we work closely with are amazingly talented and dedicated and I’m feeling lucky I got to learn from many of you. Most of all, I want to thank Mike for turning this ragtag bunch of misfits into an important and respected part of Google. We’ve come a long way and I don’t know another manager who would’ve gotten us so far.
I wish I could say goodbye to everyone and have hardly had a chance to to anyone. But if I linger, I might end up changing my mind. Please stay in touch. You can get a hold of me by replying-all to this message (my personal address is in the “To:” field). And I’m pretty easy to find on the web now — a year and a half of developer advocacy and I’ve totally pwned the other three Brian Kennishes in Google search results.
Letters to the Editor
So what happens now? Any future plans?
Google Scholar continues, helpful, unobtrusive; and says good things about the company for how that feature has been handled and NOT over hyped, or even promoted.
In leaving, do they give you a gold watch, or one of the notebooks with Chrome OS, so you can disconnect it?
Funny you didn't mention anything about Disconnect.
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